Some Characters have abilities, which are reduced in effect, when expansions are used.

The Merchant: He can pay off Goblins (3 Cards), Hobgoblins (2 Cards) and Oggres (3 Cards). If playing with expansions those Cards are getting rare indeed.

The Hobgoblin: He can take Goblins as followers, adding thheir Strength ("2") to his. Bonus +2 is quite good, but usually no Goblin survives another Character' encounter... If playing wirth expansions (one more goblin) they are hardly ever met by the Hobgoblin...

This is a big problem indeed. The Merchant is still quite usuable, since he has other abilities (like Trading) that are not influenced by deck dilution.But when it comes to the Hobgoblin, I'm fully with you, he becomes useless the more expansions you add. Just a few thoughts on this:

1) There are two Goblins dwelling in the Catacombs in a relatively small deck which doesn't get diluted when you throw in more expansions. So it might be a good idea for the Hobgoblin to go in the Catacombs early on.

2) Of all Talisman expansions there are, just 2 were designed by the original author Bob Harris: The "Expansion" and the "Dungeon". As I've said the Dungeon contains 2 Goblins and the Expansion (which came with the Hobgoblin character) added an additional Goblin to the main Adventure deck. It seems to me as if deck dilution was something Bob took into consideration when he designed these expansions and added those Goblins.Now the later expansions (especially those that add to the main deck; Adventure, Dragons) don't appear to be thought through to that degree and didn't add any Goblins. Bob Harris also criticized them and said that, although he liked them overall, there were some "errors" in them.I can imagine what things he might have been referring to, and maybe even the "Goblin problem" was one of those things. The point I'm trying to make is that I think that by adding some new Goblins to the game, you wouldn't violate the game's balance, on the contrary, this might even be in the spirit of the Game designer himself.

Actually I haven't tried this out yet but I was thinking about adding 2-3 additional Goblins to the Adventure deck (base + expansion + dragons + adventure). For this, one could simply keep the blank goblin card that originally came with the German base game instead of replacing it with the new Goblin card that came with the City. I also have an additional Talisman set and could use 2 Goblins from this deck.I think this would greatly improve the special abilities of the Hobgoblin character. Of course a very lucky player might encounter all 7-8 goblins, although this is extremely unlikely, it would probably be a game killer - maybe it would be reasonable to limit the amount of Goblin followers to 4 or so.

This is a big problem indeed. The Merchant is still quite usuable, since he has other abilities (like Trading) that are not influenced by deck dilution.But when it comes to the Hobgoblin, I'm fully with you, he becomes useless the more expansions you add. Just a few thoughts on this:

1) There are two Goblins dwelling in the Catacombs in a relatively small deck which doesn't get diluted when you throw in more expansions. So it might be a good idea for the Hobgoblin to go in the Catacombs early on.

2) Of all Talisman expansions there are, just 2 were designed by the original author Bob Harris: The "Expansion" and the "Dungeon". As I've said the Dungeon contains 2 Goblins and the Expansion (which came with the Hobgoblin character) added an additional Goblin to the main Adventure deck. It seems to me as if deck dilution was something Bob took into consideration when he designed these expansions and added those Goblins.Now the later expansions (especially those that add to the main deck; Adventure, Dragons) don't appear to be thought through to that degree and didn't add any Goblins. Bob Harris also criticized them and said that, although he liked them overall, there were some "errors" in them.I can imagine what things he might have been referring to, and maybe even the "Goblin problem" was one of those things. The point I'm trying to make is that I think that by adding some new Goblins to the game, you wouldn't violate the game's balance, on the contrary, this might even be in the spirit of the Game designer himself.

Actually I haven't tried this out yet but I was thinking about adding 2-3 additional Goblins to the Adventure deck (base + expansion + dragons + adventure). For this, one could simply keep the blank goblin card that originally came with the German base game instead of replacing it with the new Goblin card that came with the City. I also have an additional Talisman set and could use 2 Goblins from this deck.I think this would greatly improve the special abilities of the Hobgoblin character. Of course a very lucky player might encounter all 7-8 goblins, although this is extremely unlikely, it would probably be a game killer - maybe it would be reasonable to limit the amount of Goblin followers to 4 or so.

Great Comment! I also kept the "blank" Goblin and will add (cannibalize) from an extra Talisman Game, when playing with expansions.If the Hobgoblin manages to build a "Goblin Army" so be it. He still could be attacked by psychic combat or loose a Goblin follower with Mesmerize Spell (although of no use for the spoell caster)...

Another Ability which is "The Sirene has no effect on You" which is an ability of many humanoid characters. This one time card gets even rarer, when playing with expansion. We changed the siren to a Stranger, who stays in place and can be "activated" any number of times...